Speaking Their Truth

Inclusion and connectedness are at the heart of Show and Heal, a West Palm Beach-based nonprofit that offers youth of all backgrounds, viewpoints and orientations the opportunity to express themselves through video interviews and blog posts.

Local teacher and founder Xahej "Xi" Bajipura has created 18 videos thus far, spotlighting different minority groups, including Sikh, LGBTQ, Bahai and Muslim, and allowing kids, teens and young adults to open up about their identities and cultures. The central goal is to demonstrate - and strengthen - the fundamental interconnectedness of the human experience.

Bajipura, 32, founded Show and Heal, which comprises a small number of unpaid volunteers, in 2016 to confront negative stereotypes about such groups.

"Throughout my life, I have interacted with and have become friends with so many people, and it was difficult to live with insensitive comments and inaccurate depictions of who people really were," she says. "It was time to do something about it."

Growing up in San Francisco, Bajipura, who is Gujarati, believed she was treated unfairly based on her gender, skin color and culture. This shaming motivated her to focus on youth and their distinctive perspectives with Show and Heal.

Over the years, she has met and worked with people of all nationalities, races and beliefs while volunteering in India, mentoring incarcerated youth in southern California, and counseling children with substance abuse disorder and other mental health issues. Currently, she is in her third year teaching at Title I public schools.

"I see myself in others and see others in myself as if I am looking in the mirror," she says. "I believe all humans are connected to one another in ways that cannot meet the naked eye but can be felt with an open heart."

The Show and Heal team recently finished shooting a documentary on multiculturalism in Canada and has plans for a mental health documentary as well as features on indigenous peoples, the Hindu caste system and incarcerated youth. Videos can be viewed on Show and Heal's YouTube channel. O